Lewisville Jumps in the Fray to Lure Retail Giant Amazon

Lewisville is jumping into the race to land the huge Amazon corporate campus.The Denton County suburb has teamed up with Bright Realty to pitch a 135-acre commercial development site in the Castle Hills development on Sam Rayburn Tollway.Developer Bright has spent more than a year preparing the vacant tract for a large-scale corporate campus project."It was always part of our development plan for it to be an office park," said Bright's Eric Stanley. "We threw our hat in the ring for Amazon with the city of Lewisville."The Lewisville property is one of more than a dozen North Texas locations that economic development groups and commercial builders are promoting as a site for Seattle-based Amazon's planned second headquarters complex.The project is expected to include more than 5 million square feet and eventually house up to 50,000 workers."We currently have construction on a significant lake and a water feature on the way on the property," Stanley said. "We have our fist 240,000-square-foot office building that is shovel ready."This 135 acres is planned where it could be 3 million plus square feet of construction."The 20-year-old Castle Hills development is one of North Texas most successful new communities, with the 2,600-acre located in Lewisville and Carrollton."When we are done we are approaching 5,000 houses," Stanley said. "We'll have around 7,000 apartment units."Ultimately the retail component in Castle Hills is 2 million square feet," he said. "What we have in Castle Hills is a diverse demographic that continues to grow more diverse with the addition of multi-family housing."Homes in Castle Hills start at more than $300,000 and range in price above $1.5 million.More than 12,000 people now live in community, which is about 12 miles from Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport and four miles from the $3 billion Legacy West development in Plano.Developers from all over North Texas have responded to Amazon's request for potential headquarters sites, pitching locations stretching from downtown Dallas to the suburbs including Frisco, Richardson and North Fort Worth.The giant digital retailer has asked to have potential locations submitted by late the month.  Continue reading...